The
chequered flag fell yesterday on a largely rainy Monza
three-hour race, the first round of the 2012 Blancpain
Endurance Series.
Among the plethora of Ferrari entrants, the best result
overall went to the Kessel Racing-run 458 GT3 in the hands of Stefano
Gattuso, Daniel Zampieri and Ferrari’s own Davide Rigon,
who finished in fourth place overall. The race featured
long periods behind the safety car because of bad
weather, cancelling out the advantage of starting from
pole position for the Italian team.
However all eyes were on
MotoGP star Valentino Rossi, making his debut in the
Blancpain Endurance Series, in the Kessel Racing Ferrari
458 GT3 No.46 alongside fellow-Italian Alessio Salucci.
The pair finished 18th overall after a strong drive in
the first period of the race. Salucci tangled with a
back-marker on the 90-minute mark. Despite the car,
sporting the striking VR46 livery, dropping down the
order, Rossi brought the car to finish 9th in the Pro-Am
class.
There were spoils for
Ferrari in the Pro-Am calss as victory went to the No.57
Vita4One Italy Ferrari 458 GT3 of Italian trio Eugenio
Amos, Giacomo Petrobelli and Alessandro Bonacini from
the No.20 Ferrari 458 GT3 of French squad SOFREV ASP
with Jean-Luc Beaubelique, Ludovic Badey and Patrice
Goueslard sharing the driving duties. Third place went
the class pole-sitters Richard Westbrook, Hans Guido
Riegel and Mike Stursberg in the Haribo Racing Team
Porsche 997 GT3 R. Westbrook had qualified the car in
third overall the previous day.
"It was great to drive
over the line," said Amos after the race. "To be the
third driver it is always very nice to win or go to the
podium, and I love the opportunity to bring things
together for the team. My home town is not far from the
track here in Monza, which makes it special. It was
amazing, lots of friends here and family, it is a good
memory for sure."
With the Monza track
surface heavily waterlogged, the three-hour race began
under the Safety Car. It was withdrawn in the 37th
minute and the pack unleashed with a thunderous stampede
down the main straight. Vast roosters of spray testified
to the amount of water on the track. The weather over
the three days of the first round was not kind at all –
rain, rain and more rain. A total of 57 cars were
entered for Monza – a record for a single category GT3
event.
The Gentlemen Trophy
category winners came from the Kessel Racing outfit,
this time it was the Swiss team's No.73 Ferrari 430
Scuderia driven by Pablo Paladino, Paolo Andreasi and
Bejamino Caccia who claimed honours.
As for the AF Corse cars, the performance of Gaetano Ardagna, Giuseppe Cirò and Daniel Brown stood
out, though it was unfortunately thwarted by a gearbox
problem that caused their retirement just 50 seconds
from the flag. The 458 GT3 of Niek Hommerson, Louis
Machiels and Andrea Bertolini did make it to the finish
in 8th place among the Pro Am cars. The Ferrari driven
by Jack Gerber and Marco Cioci finished in 22nd place in
the class, followed by the sister car of Howard
Blanck-Yannick Mallegol-Jean Marc Bachelier, 27th in the
Pro Am class at the flag.
The next round of the 2012 Blancpain Endurance Series is
scheduled for the weekend of June 2 at Silverstone.
